Dialectic of Domination and Development
Discussion
Charles McKelvey:
"Conquest has been central to human history, and it has been an important motor for human economic and moral development, providing the foundation for empires and civilizations. Conquest provided the conquering power with the economic and human resources that enabled the development of a class liberated from food gathering or food production, freed to pursue not only advances in the art of war, but also advances in commerce, science, technology, philosophy, literature, and art. A conquering empire, once it attains political control over an extended territory, builds infrastructure and maintains peace, providing the conditions for commercial expansion and technological development, standing in contrast to the limited possibilities of local tribes.
I call this historic central human tendency “the dialectic of domination and development.” It is a dialectic that unfolds in the real world. The conquest and domination by an empire or nation of other societies constitutes the thesis. The resistance of the conquered expresses its antithesis. And the synthesis involves the construction of progress and development, drawing upon human and material resources and knowledge and technologies that pertain to both worlds of the conquerors and the conquered.
The synthesis can be forged from above or below. That is, it can be forged by the conquerors, driving the synthesis to further develop its civilization. Or it can be forged from below, driven by the interest of the conquered to transform unjust structures. Or, what is the best option for us today, the synthesis can be forged by the cooperation of the two.
The dialectic of domination and development is illustrated by the Assyrian Empire of the fourteenth century B.C.E., more than 3,000 years ago. The later Babylonian and Persian empires also illustrate the phenomenon, as do the conquests of Alexander the Great as well as the Islamic conquest of the Middle East, Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Spain during the period from 622 to 675. In La Civilización de Islam, Ricardo Elía documents the civilizational advances of the Islamic world in the aftermath of the Islamic conquest. He observed that for seven centuries, from 800 to 1500, the Islamic Civilization led the world in the territorial extension of its governments, in moral norms, in humanitarian legislation, in religious toleration, in literature, science, medicine, architecture, and philosophy. Its culture was widely dispersed and integrated: sovereign caliphs, merchants, and doctors could be philosophers.
We know a whole lot more about the pre-modern history of conquest in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe than we know about conquest in Africa and America during the same period. But we know enough to know that conquest was present as an important dimension in the history of pre-modern Africa and America.
So, I view the dialectic of domination and development as essentially a universal human phenomenon, expressing itself in all regions of the world following the agricultural revolution. Indeed, the dialectic of domination and development has been so extensive in human history that it is reasonable to conclude that virtually all human beings alive today are the descendants of peoples who have been conquered at some point in human history. We have all been conquered, in one place and time or another."
(https://charlesmckelvey.substack.com/p/conquest-and-civilizations-in-history)